DR. OLU AGUNLOYE (FROMER MINISTER OF POWER AND STEEL)

For years, the Mambilla Power Project debacle has remained a defining reference point of what could be involved in doing business in Nigeria. Mambilla hydro-power project is a 3.05GW hydroelectric facility being developed on the Dongo River near Baruf, in Kakara Village of Taraba State, Nigeria. The project is being undertaken by Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Power, Construction and Housing, with the help of Chinese investments. Expected to commence operation in 2030, Mambilla will be Nigeria’s biggest power plant, producing approximately 4.7 billion kWh of electricity a year. The project is estimated to cost $5.8bn and will generate up to 50,000 local jobs during the construction phase.

Like most Nigerian Government turnkey projects, the Mambilla Hydro-Power project has been dogged by unimaginable tales of high-wire bribery, corruption and fraudulent activities humongous proportion. It is worthy of note that all expatriates (non-Nigerians) involved in these messy contract deals are all languishing in jails in their home countries in Germany and Italy for being part of a fraudulent and corrupt scheme contrary to international best practices of doing businesses in foreign countries.  But in Nigeria, where the justice system has been bedeviled by obvious lack political will to go after “Big Ticket Crimes”, especially if personalities of substance are involved, thus absolutely nothing happened to those involved in this massive fraud from the Nigerian end until a few months ago.

However, it would appear that sordid narratives of the Mambilla Power Project is taking on a new and refreshing perspectives. A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, the nation’s capital, has ordered that the former minister of Power and Steel, Olu Agunloye, be remanded in Kuje prison pending the perfection of his bail conditions. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had arraigned Agunloye over allegations of fraud to the tune of $6 billion in the Mambilla hydropower contract.

The anti-graft agency brought the ex-minister before Donatus Okorowo, Wednesday where he pleaded not guilty to the charges read against him. On December 13, 2023, the EFCC declared Agunloye wanted over alleged corruption. It was later reported that he surrendered himself to the commission for investigation. Agunloye’s predicament began after former President Olusegun Obasanjo challenged him to tell Nigerians where he received the authority to award a $6 billion contract to Sunrise for the Mambilla hydropower project in 2003.

 

Reacting to his former boss’ statement, Agunloye said the government was not compelled to pay any amount to Sunrise under the build, operate, and transfer (BOT) agreement. He said the arrangement remained as it was to be fully funded by the newly registered company, whose declared assets were worth less than $2,000 at the time.